Mindfulness in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), part 1: Contact with the Present Moment

Joe Rhinewine, PhD, psychologist and director of Portland Mindfulness Therapy begins his discussion of mindfulness in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), introducing us to the most basic process learned in ACT, that of “contact with the present moment.” He leads us through a very brief experiential exercise illustrating that process.

This video is not intended to provide psychological advice or treatment. It is intended for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional help. It will not do your laundry, either. That’s piling up and you should get it done.

Portland Mindfulness Meditation Classes: Winter Melts into to Spring

Like these apple blossoms, we can bloom in any weather, under any conditions.  Whatever your amount of experience with meditation, you will learn, grow and thrive this Spring as you cultivate mindfulness.  Learning to meditate or revitalizing a meditation practice could be the single best thing you do for yourself in 2013.  Register for a class today!

Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

This four-week class is perfect for absolute beginners, or a wonderful refresher, even if you have a longstanding mindfulness meditation practice.  We will explore many tools of mindfulness.

Thursdays February 7th, 21st, 28th, and March 7th, 6:30 – 8pm

$100 early registration, $120 after February 1st.

Register for this class

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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

The 8-week class originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, supported by 30 years of research. Mindfulness is a way to bring vibrancy to our lives.  MBSR can also be a powerful adjunct to therapy or medical treatment, and has proven beneficial for chronic pain, various health conditions, or just simply “living the full catastrophe.” Free (required)

Orientation dates:

• Wednesdays January 30th OR February 6th, 6:30 – 8:30pm.
• Classes are Wednesdays February 13th – April 3rd 6:30 – 8:30pm.
• Day-Long Retreat Saturday March 23rd, 9 – 4. (Previous MBSR Graduates welcome to retreat.)

Register for this class

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MBSR Refresher

By popular demand, a regular opportunity to come practice the tools of mindfulness.  This is a wonderful way to support an ongoing (but maybe flagging) home practice.  Of course, we are all beginners, so everyone is welcome.

Thursday, March 21st, 6:30-8pm

$15

Register for this class

Clean Slate: Keeping Resolutions in the New Year

With winter comes the opportunity to make a fresh start

Do you want to make a fresh start? Begin a new year in a whole new way–

Join us for Clean Slate 2013!

This class will offer participants the means for a new experience of life in the new year, using mindfulness techniques.

Clean Slate: Keeping Resolutions in the New Year will include basic instruction in mindfulness meditation, values clarification exercises, goal-setting and guided discussion. Beginning and intermediate meditation students welcome. Class is facilitated by Portland Mindfulness psychologist and director, Joe Rhinewine, PhD.

Mondays January 7th, 14th, 28th. 6:30 – 8pm

Click Here to Register!

Portland Mindfulness Classes – Learn Meditation in 2013!

We have a bevy of new class offering in 2013.  Bevy.  I like that word.

Click here to check them out and register for the one that suits you best!

…or read on!

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Clean Slate: Keeping Resolutions in the New Year

Begin a new year in a whole new way. This class will offer participants the means for a new experience of life in the new year, using mindfulness techniques. The class will include basic instruction in mindfulness meditation, values clarification exercises, goal-setting and guided discussion. Beginning and intermediate meditation students welcome. Class is facilitated by Dr Joe Rhinewine, who is a psychologist.  He specializes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and draws heavily from this and other mindfulness modalities.

Mondays January 7th, 14th, 28th. 6:30 – 8pm

$75 early registration, $90 after January 4th

Register for this class

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Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

This four-week class is perfect for absolute beginners, or a wonderful refresher, even if you have a longstanding mindfulness meditation practice.  We will explore many tools of mindfulness.

Thursdays February 7th, 21st, 28th, and March 7th, 6:30 – 8pm

$100 early registration, $120 after February 1st.

Register for this class

—

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

The 8-week class originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, supported by 30 years of research. Mindfulness is a way to bring vibrancy to our lives.  MBSR can also be a powerful adjunct to therapy or medical treatment, and has proven beneficial for chronic pain, various health conditions, or just simply “living the full catastrophe.” Free (required)

Orientation dates:

• Wednesdays January 30th OR February 6th, 6:30 – 8:30pm.
• Classes are Wednesdays February 13th – April 3rd 6:30 – 8:30pm.
• Day-Long Retreat Saturday March 23rd, 9 – 4. (Previous MBSR Graduates welcome to retreat.)

Register for this class

—

MBSR Refreshers

By popular demand, a regular opportunity to come practice the tools of mindfulness.  This is a wonderful way to support an ongoing (but maybe flagging) home practice.  Of course, we are all beginners, so everyone is welcome.

Thursdays, January 17th, March 21st, 6:30-8pm

$15

Register for this class

Ignorance: Numb Up, Turn Off, Drop Out

Ignorance may not be bliss, but often it’s a tempting option.

What “ignorance” is, from a mindfulness perspective, is simply tuning out.  Specifically, tuning out and not being aware that we are tuning out.  It is being unaware, and then being unaware that we are being unaware.

Some of us specialize in this particular form of unskillful behavior, but all of us do it to some extent, much of the time.  Actually, we cannot be aware of one thing, if we do not tune-out other things.  Much like a camera, we cannot focus on something without de-focusing something else.

When we are skillful, we choose consciously what we wish to tune-out, and we do so motivated by our values.  When we are unskillful, we are not so aware of what we are tuning out, and we do so motivated by comfort and discomfort.

Like the main character of the rock opera “Tommy,” we are “deaf, dumb and blind” a fair bit of the time.  We do not see what we do not wish to see.  We hear what we want to hear, and disregard the rest.

Mindfulness involves becoming more and more open to what is — even the parts we are not so happy about, the information and experiences that we do not like very much on first encountering them.  Practicing mindfulness, we slowly become more and more willing to see, hear, and speak what is not so pleasant, but what is in fact here, and is in fact important.  We have less and less time for what is pleasant, but unskillful. We have less and less time for what is just a distraction from reality.

Do you want to see, hear and speak what is?  Or would you rather be deaf, dumb and blind, but protected from unpleasant realities?  That is the choice we make again and again when practicing mindfulness.

portlandmindful.com

Portland Mindfulness Meditation Classes for Winter

Portland Mindfulness offers a range of meditation classes for various levels of commitment.  We are all beginners, so beginners are welcome at every level.  It’s just a matter of how much time you want to commit.   If you are just starting to meditate and want to try things out, I recommend the first class listed below, Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation. On the other hand, if you have some experience and/or are highly stressed and motivated to practice, I recommend MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction).  If you have already taken MBSR, and could use help in maintaining your meditation practice, try one of our MBSR refresher sessions to get your practice back on-track.

Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation
This four-week class is perfect for absolute beginners, or a wonderful refresher, even if you have a longstanding mindfulness meditation practice. We will explore many tools of mindfulness. Come and learn how to practice “Beginners Mind.”

Classes are Thursdays February 7th, 21st, 28th, and March 7th, 6:30 – 8pm

$100 earlybird registration, $120 after February 1st.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
The 8-week class originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, supported by 30 years of research. This is a powerful adjunct to therapy or medical treatment, and has proven beneficial for chronic pain, various health conditions, or just simply “living the full catastrophe.”

Free (required) Orientation dates:Wednesdays January 30th OR February 6th, 6:30 – 8:30pm.

Classes are Wednesdays February 13th – April 3rd 6:30 – 8:30pm.

Day-Long Retreat Saturday March 16th, 9 – 4. Previous MBSR Graduates welcome to retreat.

$350 earlybird registration, $400 after February 8th.

MBSR Refreshers
By popular demand, a regular opportunity to come practice the tools of mindfulness. This is a wonderful way to support an ongoing (but maybe flagging) home practice. Of course, we are all beginners, so everyone is welcome.

Classes are Thursdays, January 17th, March 21st, 6:30-8pm
$15

Portland Mindfulness on KGW TV News!

Our own Laura Martin, LCSW on KGW News Portland, talking about making the holiday season less stressful!

She will be teaching From Dread to Joy: Self-Compassion in the Holiday Season, A Three-Class Series, Tuesdays 6:30 – 8:00pm, November 28th – December 12th. Register for the class: 503.222.2361

Click Here to Watch Video!

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a unique American holiday as far as I know, one derived from our early history on this continent. Ironically, a holiday that was originally intended as an opportunity to practice gratitude has become more associated in our minds with gluttony!

Gratitude heals and strengthens us.  Seeing that we have so much helps cure us of our greed and constant desires for more, more, more.

Our greed for “more” can be very subtle.  It can take the form of complaining, self-criticism, and cynicism.  All of these are forms of the thought “This Is Not Good Enough.”

While the discernment that there are things in the world that could be improved can be helpful, constant thoughts of our world’s deficiencies can subtly rob us of life’s joy and satisfaction if we do not practice mindfulness with these thoughts.

Thanksgiving can be a time when we reflect on how MUCH we have, how fortunate we are, how lucky we are.  Nearly all of us in this country, and probably each and every person who would end up reading this blog post, swim in wealth and good fortune.  We have enough food, shelter, warmth, clean water and medicine.  We have leisure time.  We have entertainment.  We live in a blessed time and place, compared to other times and places through history and across the planet.  Can we see this, even for a day?

Thanksgiving can be an opportunity for those who practice mindfulness to focus on cultivating gratitude.  Gratitude is a skill, not a feeling.  We can note what we have, even if we don’t happen to get a warm-gushy-fuzzy feeling.  It’s nice if we can feel the melting of the heart that occurs when we wholly embrace gratitude.  But its enough if we are willing to note–coolly and cognitively if need be–how many things we have to be grateful for.

Let’s count our blessings on Thanksgiving.  And eat mindfully, with great enjoyment and savoring the seasoning of gratitude.

www.portlandmindful.com

How I Practice What I Preach

Intensive meditation practice is difficult, rewarding, and essential for those who wish to be serious students of mindfulness.

Short and sweet, as I am packing to leave: Besides practicing mindfulness meditation every day, I practice what I preach by attending intensive retreats.  I try to go to a weeklong meditation retreat each year (missed a few after my 2nd child was born), and when I can’t, I go for an intensive weekend.
There is simply no substitute for intensive practice.  I do NOT like it.  I do it because I like what it does for me.  I have thoughts of home on and off the whole time and often feel an urge to leave.  But I stay, and I return, because I like what it does to my being.

If you want to do intensive retreats, there are many places in Oregon, the US, and elsewhere, in the Zen school of meditation, and many others.  We at Portland Mindfulness do not yet offer more than daylong retreat (and that in the context of MBSR thus far).  I highly recommend to serious students of mindfulness that they find somewhere to practice in this way.

See you next week!

Joe

From Dread to Joy: Self-Compassion in the Holiday Season

In the pressure and busyness of the holidays, it is easy to lose sight of what is really important. Give yourself a gift this holiday season; one that will benefit everyone around you. We will learn: Skills to cultivate compassion, barriers to self-compassion, and how self-compassion is anything but selfish. From Dread to Joy: Self-Compassion in the Holiday Season is is a three-class Series on Wednesday evenings, 6:30 – 8:00pm. It begins November 28th; subsequent classes are December 5th and 12th. The class is taught by Laura Martin, LCSW, a veteran mindfulness instructor and psychotherapist. $75 earlybird registration, $90 after November 26. REGISTER NOW! Call 503.222.2361, ext. 1. You may leave a message with your phone number if you reach voicemail. Our staff will return your call within 2 business days. www.portlandmindful.com/